Essays on trans, intersex, cis and other persons and topics from a trans perspective.......All human life is here.

This site is the most comprehensive on the web devoted to trans history and biography. Well over 1200 persons worthy of note, both famous and obscure, are discussed in detail, and many more are mentioned in passing - especially in the year-end summaries (see links in right sidebar.)

There is a detailedIndexarranged by vocation, doctor, activist group etc.

In addition to this most articles have one or more labels at the bottom. Click one to go to similar persons. There is a full list of labels at the bottom of the page. There is also a search box at the top left. Enjoy exploring!

28 April 2008

Keith was raised in Wembley, London. He was a failure at school, except for music. He left at 15. He was the drummer with The Escorts, and then The Beachcombers, and joined The Who in 1964. He was married to a woman from 1966 to 1973.

He was noted for playing fast and loud, and one occasion he literally exploded one of the drums as a climax. He became famous for his destructions of hotel rooms and friends’ rooms. He destroyed plumbing by dropping fireworks down toilets. He drove a car into a swimming pool in Flint, Michigan – some say that it was a $50,000 Rolls-Royce, but there has been controversy about exactly which brand of car it was. In 1970, he ran over and killed a friend while escaping from hostile skinheads.

A heterosexual drag queen, his favourite drag was as the Queen. As Dougal Butler, his personal assistant puts it, Moonie 'frequently takes it into his head to act the ginger beer, especially if he can get hold of a dress or two'.

In the movies he portrayed a groupie who dressed as a nun in Frank Zappa's 200 Motels, 1971, wicked Uncle Ernie in Tommy, 1975, and a dress designer given to sampling the product in Mae West's Sextet, 1978. The tabloid press relished tales of Moon on the road with a pal referred to as Barry the Poof and his transvestite boyfriend.

He died from an overdose of Clomethiazole (Heminevrin), a medication taken as part of a programme to wean him off alcohol. He died in the same apartment that Mama Cass Elliot had died in four years earlier. He was 32.

Dougal Butler with Chris Trengove and Peter Lawrence. Full Moon: The Amazing Rock and Roll Life of the Late Keith Moon. William Morrow and Company. 1981: 113.

Announcement re year-end review

At the end of each year from 2008 to 2015 I did a year-end review of trans persons and events around the world. Each year it became bigger, and it has really become too big a task for one person. I hereby give notice that I will not be doing such a year-end review this year, or in future.

I will do some bits, especially the list of new books, but not the comprehensive survey that I have previously done.

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About Zagria

I have a social science degree. I spent several years in the 70s doing Gay Lib counselling, and moved on to organizing trans groups. I was rejected by the Clarke Institute (now CAMH) in the mid 1980s, probably because I do not match either of their stereotypes, but was accepted by Russel Reid on our first meeting in late 1987, and had surgery from James Dalrymple some months later. I have mainly worked as an IT consultant. I have been with the same husband for 44 years.